Sharper scorn for Congress, fairly steady support for Obama

By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer Liz Sidoti, Ap National Political Writer – 48 mins ago

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll found that fewer people approve of Congress than at any point in Obama‘s presidency. Support has dropped significantly since January to a dismal 22 percent as the health care debate has roiled Capitol Hill. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are safe; half of all people say they want to fire their congressman.

"I agree with what Obama is trying to do, but nobody is listening to him," said Grace Pope of Waterville, Maine. But this 75-year-old Democrat added, "I don‘t think that the Congress is doing anything."

But, given the fickleness of this electorate, the uncertainty of the health care debate and the stubbornly high unemployment rate, the president could just as quickly turn into a liability. His own clout will be on the line in the first midterm elections of his presidency. And the outcome is certain to shape the remainder of his first term, if not his likely re-election bid in 2012.

Thus, another of the poll‘s findings may not bode well for Obama and his Democrats: A clear majority of Americans — 56 percent — now say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

"Just bundle them in the same bag," said Newman, who at 79 just lost a job with a local public school district because of budget woes. "I don‘t think either one of them is interested in the general public. ... They‘re always stalling, playing politics, trying to jockey for a better position for their own re-election."

Obama‘s overall standing hasn‘t really moved since January. Neither have his ratings on health care and the economy.

By comparison, Congress‘ approval rating has dropped 10 percentage points since January, perhaps an indication that people are blaming lawmakers more than the president for gridlock that has paralyzed Washington on a host of fronts.

"I don‘t think anybody up there is doing a good job. ... We need to get rid of them all and institute term limits," said Republican John Campbell, 52, of Del Rio, Texas, a warden at a federal detention center. He castigated Washington as full of "cronies" and Congress as a "bunch of entitled prima donnas."

As poor as the ratings are for Congress in general, people seem slightly more unhappy with Republicans than Democrats — another bit of potentially good news for Obama‘s party.

Just 30 percent approve of how Republicans in Congress are doing their jobs compared with 36 percent for Democrats.

Republicans still trail Democrats on the question of who should win control of Congress come November; 44 percent say Democrats, 38 percent say Republicans.

And the GOP has a slight disadvantage on two issues that voters deem among the most important — the economy and health care.

Still, Democrats are vulnerable, and perhaps nothing illustrates that vulnerability better than this: By 67 percent to 59 percent, more independents disapprove of Democrats in Congress than disapprove of Republicans. This matters because independents usually determine who wins elections. And they have been moving away from Democrats, after heavily supporting them in 2006 and 2008.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted March 3-8, 2010, by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,002 adults nationwide, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

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Associated Press Polling Director Trevor Tompson, AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and AP Writer Ann Sanner contributed to this report.



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